


Knock Knock

by BlackRabbit



Series: Goodnight Irene [7]
Category: MASH (TV)
Genre: Demons, Gen, Haunting, Paranormal, Scary, Spooky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:49:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27129499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackRabbit/pseuds/BlackRabbit
Summary: Hawkeye and Irene finally have a place of their own. A charming apartment that is part of a converted mansion. Great neighbors, close to work, plenty of space, and an entity that wants just one little thing... Irene. (Goodnight Irene Post War AU)
Relationships: Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce & Original Female Character(s)
Series: Goodnight Irene [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1861669
Comments: 5
Kudos: 5





	Knock Knock

###  **Part I**

“I don’t think I like this place,” Hawk said, glancing around at the apartment. Irene had done well to unpack and sort things while he was at work and she had genuinely given the space a touch of home. Plants decorated the apartment in colorful pots, each with a name of a friend written on them. Except Frank. Hawk sneered but let it go for the time being. “It’s spooky.”

The place was decent sized, part of an old mansion that had been converted into apartments. Hardwood floors, thick walls, and a fantastic view of a community park where there was a pond and ducks. It had two bedrooms and two baths as well as a large living area and kitchen with a balcony. New sliding doors had been put in place and neither of them were so happy upon learning that they had once been French doors, but other than that, the place was great.

Except for one thing.

They’d rented it without seeing it first and now that Hawk had a moment to be in the apartment without rushing around, carrying furniture or boxes, he had to admit that something felt wrong. Like someone was watching him. He felt the hair go up on the back of his neck, but Irene just laughed and shoved a box to his chest.

“Stop looking like that. This place is great. Now go put our toiletries in the master bath while I make us some sandwiches.”

“Yeah, can’t burn the kitchen down with those,” he teased and she swatted him with a towel. She went to the fridge and started bustling about while he walked down the long, dark hallway to the bedroom. The guest bedroom was the first door on the right, followed by a bathroom, then the master bedroom at the end of the hall.

As he passed the first bedroom he could have sworn he saw something move, darting out from under the unmade bed into the closet.

“Irene,” he said. “I just saw something.”

“What do you mean?”

He stared at the floor. “It went from the bed to the closet.”

“It was probably a mouse. We can put traps out later.”

Hawk bit his tongue. What he saw didn’t look like a mouse, but he closed the door and moved on to the master bath. There was a clawfoot tub on the side wall with a shower curtain hung over it. A toilet sat between it and the double sink. He opened the medicine cabinet and put their things away, organizing for each sink.

He was being paranoid. There was no reason to feel the way he did about the apartment. It was a beautiful old building and rented cheap enough they could save for a home of their own. Everyone gets anxious when in a new place, he said to himself. As his shoulders began to relax the rustling of the shower curtain caught his attention and he looked over, but it wasn’t moving at all.

Strange. His brow creased. He knew he’d heard the shower curtain. With a deep breath he shook his head and returned to his task, closing the mirrored medicine cabinet.

He saw a shadow dart from the end of the bed to the hall door and he spun around, afraid it was a person who had snuck in. He braced his hands in the door frame, but no one was there. Every instinct was telling him to run, then Irene came down the hall with a tray of sandwiches cut into triangles, drinks, and sliced fruit.

“Sorry I didn’t make anything extravagant on our first night here, but I’m exhausted.” She sat in the corner where they’d placed two chairs and a small table by a window that looked out over the street.

“Did you see something in the hall?” he asked, heart pounding in his ears.

“Like what?” she asked, leaning to look back the way she’d come. “Did you drop something?”

“Ah, uh, no. No I guess not.”

“Are you alright?”

“Hm? Me? Oh, yeah I’m perfect. Just tired I guess.”

“Hopefully not too tired,” she winked and took a sip of her drink.

Hawk smirked. If nothing else, whatever she had in mind would distract him.

  
  
  


###  **Part II**

  
  


The moon shone high overhead by the time Hawk got home from the hospital. Another doctor was out with the flu, which had left Hawkeye with more cases than he could handle. The long hours were getting to him. He sat out in the driveway and rubbed his eyes. The house was quiet, still, the other tenants already asleep. Afterall, it was nearing three in the morning.

He looked up to see the light in his and Irene’s bedroom was on and he grinned. She’d waited up for him? Most likely not. She always tried but then wound up falling asleep before he’d get home. Not that he minded. It was cute.

Someone moved, a shadow behind the curtains and he chuckled. Wow, she’d actually managed to stay up. He unlocked the front door and stepped into the mansion’s foyer but when he turned his back to bolt it from the inside, he saw something move upstairs.

Hawk stood with his back to the door, staring up the center staircase toward the second floor where his apartment was.

“Mrs. Boris?” he called, hoping it was the landlady, but he got to reply.

Slowly he crept up the stairs, hand gripping the hand railing as he ascended. He licked his lips and neared the top, but the landing was empty. A creeping feeling tingled his shoulders and he unlocked the apartment door and darted in, closing it quickly behind him.

The apartment was quiet. He dropped his coat and shoes by the door and went into the kitchen to make himself a drink.

“Irene? You won’t believe what I just did,” he said, pouring himself a martini. “About got the hell scared out of me because of a shadow. Call Sydney, I think I’m cracking up. Again.” He muttered the last word into his glass but still there was no reply.

He moved around the corner to look down the hall where the bedroom door was open a few inches, light from within illuminating the hall in a dim glow. The light was blocked for a moment, as if someone walked past the door. Didn’t she hear him talking?

“Irene?”

No reply. He set down the glass and slowly walked down the hall. By the time he got to the door his heart was pounding, sweat beading on his forehead. With his fingertips he pushed the door open. Irene was laying in the middle of the bed with the blankets on the floor. Goosebumps covered her exposed skin, but she was fast asleep.

His stomach knotted. How? He knew he’d seen a shadow in the window, and he knew he saw something move in front of the door.

“Irene, get up,” Hawk said, rushing to her side.

She startled awake as he shook her. “Hawkeye? What are you—”

“I think there’s someone in the apartment,” he hissed and pulled her to him and off the bed, ushering her into the master bathroom. “Stay in here and be quiet.”

“What are you talking about?”

“If something happens tell BJ he can have my golf clubs,” the joke fell flat. He closed the door when she reached for him but he didn’t stick around to listen to any protests.

Hawk grabbed a bat by his side of the bed and picked up the blankets from the floor. Had someone been in the bedroom, pulling the blankets off her? He thought he might throw up. What if he hadn’t come home when he did?

He eased down to look under the bed, but it was clear. Then the closet. He pushed the clothes aside, but it was empty too.

“Hawkeye?” Irene peeked out the bedroom door.

“I’m serious,” he said. “Get in there, lock the door, and don’t come out.”

When she closed the door and he heard the lock click he wiped the sweat from his forehead and continued to search the rest of the apartment. It was empty. Just him and Irene. He got to the front door and the bolt was still locked. How?

Hawk collapsed onto the couch, letting the bat roll away from him. He rubbed his face as Irene tiptoed down the hall and peeked into the living room.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

He held out a hand for her to come to him and she did, settling in beside him.

“You’re scaring me,” she said.

“I’m sorry. I just—” he stopped himself and looked into her eyes. She was afraid. Truly. If he told her what he thought he saw, she’d never feel comfortable in the apartment alone again. He kissed her forehead. “I guess the long hours at the hospital are getting to me.”

“You sure?”

“Of course. Let’s get to bed.” He checked every door and window before joining her in the bedroom. She was asleep again in a matter of minutes, tucked close beside him. What the hell had he seen?

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


###  **Part III**

  
  
  


“Be careful on your way home,” Irene said, sneaking Hawk a kiss.

“What time are you off?”

“Midnight. Don’t wait up for me. Go get some sleep. You’ve been… tense lately.”

“I’m not tense. I’m calm and collected. Cool as a cucumber. Completely relaxed.”

“Those aren’t your keys,” she said, raising a brow.

Hawk looked to the peg board where the doctors stored their personal keys and realized he’d grabbed the wrong set. “I was just making sure you’re keeping on your toes.”

“I’m serious, Hawk. If you’re awake when I get home, you’re in big trouble.”

“Promise?”

Irene nudged his ribs and stood on her toes to give him another kiss. The other nurses tittered behind them, but Hawk didn’t care. He grabbed his keys and left for home. He’d have to figure out how to get them on more scheduled shifts in the future. Alice didn’t mind giving Irene a ride, but Hawk minded. And with what was going on in the apartment…

Hawk walked out into the parking lot as the sun was setting. An ambulance roared into the lot, lights and sirens blaring and his stomach knotted. He turned to watch as a team of nurses helped the ambulance techs and he wondered if Irene was one of them. Ambulance on the compound. Those words echoed in his ears until he was in the car and driving home.

He didn’t have to go far. The apartment was only a few blocks away but somehow it seemed to take forever to get there. He couldn’t explain what was happening in their place, and he’d been avoiding admitting what he was seeing. But it was getting worse.

The downstairs neighbor’s kid was playing in the front yard with some other kids from the neighborhood when he pulled up. Hawk stared up at his bedroom window and waited, anticipating movement, but saw nothing. The neighbor called out the door for her child and the boy said goodbye to his friends who scattered back to their homes for dinner.

Hawk walked in behind the boy and his mother who greeted him politely and went into her apartment as he headed upstairs. The apartment was dark. Quiet. As it should be. But he still felt like something was going to move any minute.

After a quick shower he settled onto the couch with left-overs and turned on the television. Soon he was engrossed in what he was watching, and the feeling of anxiety faded. Rain began to patter on the balcony and thunder rolled in the distance. He got up to look outside. The sun was almost set but clouds had moved in and darkness was falling quickly.

A flash of lightning lit up the living room as he turned around and he saw a face peeking out at him from around the corner of the hallway. He yelled and jumped back, dropping his plate to the floor where it shattered into several pieces.

He blinked and the face was gone. Or was it ever really there? Was this a hallucination?

“Who’s there?” he called, but there was no answer. He waited, listened. The creak of the floor in the hall sent shivers down his spine. He cleared the room and flipped on the hall light and the sound stopped.

The apartment was dead silent except for the storm outside and Hawk could hear his own heart in his ears. He watched the bedroom door, opened a few inches to the darkness beyond when suddenly it slammed and he stumbled back.

“What the—”

Lightning flashed and the lights went out and Hawk thought his heart might stop entirely. Trembling he fumbled with the matches and candle on the coffee table and proceeded to fill the room with the candles until he could see enough to clean up the broken pieces of his plate.

He plopped down on the couch and watched down the hall, his entire body on edge for what might happen next. There wasn’t any certainty that he’d actually seen the face, that could have been…. Well, his brain playing tricks on him. But he had seen the door slam. He’d heard the footsteps. No matter how crazy he sounded, he had to tell Irene. Tonight.

###  **Part IV**

Footsteps woke Hawkeye and woke to see Irene taking off her shoes. Hawk sighed with relief, fell back onto the couch, and rubbed his face. The storm was still raging outside and the power was still out apparently.

“Hawk?” Irene asked. “Why are you sleeping out here? And why are all these candles lit? You could have burned the house down. Are you alright?”

He sat up again and she came to perch on the coffee table. She was soaked from the rain and unwilling to sit on the couch. She brushed his hair away from his face.

“Did you have a nightmare while I was gone?”

“No, nothing like that,” he assured. “I have to tell you something but…”

“But what?”

“You’re gonna want to call Sidney and I’m telling you, I’m not crazy.”

“I don’t understand.”

Hawk took a deep breath. “I think the apartment is haunted.”

She blinked at him. “Hawkeye, if this is a prank, I’d rather you didn’t.” She stood and went back to the kitchen to heat up her dinner.

He followed her and came up behind her so she’d turn to face him. He grabbed the pan from her hands and set it aside. “I’m not joking. I know it sounds crazy but there’s been… things. Let’s get you cleaned up and dry, and I’ll explain.”

At first she looked at him with a smirk but at the expression on his face she froze, her smile fading. She searched his face, eyes shifting between his until she shuddered. He could tell she was unsure. Ghosts and hauntings weren’t something they’d ever talked about and why would they? They’d seen enough death and destruction in Korea and even though she’d not been there as long as he had, she had nightmares too.

Hawk led Irene down the hall to the master bedroom, the light of his single candle flickering ominously, and he felt the walls were closing in on them. She gave his hand a squeeze but didn’t say anything until she was in the shower. He didn’t want to leave her alone in the dark bathroom, so he put the candle on the counter and sat on the toilet.

“What’s going on, Hawk?” she asked from behind the shower curtain.

He inhaled and shook his head. “Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve never had anything like this happen to me before. At first I thought it was just lack of sleep, but now…”

She didn’t reply. Did she think he was cracking up for good? Losing his mind? She still didn’t know about the incident with the bus and he didn’t have the courage to tell her about his extended stay in Korea’s finest boarding home for the mentally unstable.

After a few minutes she stepped out of the shower and dried off, but she didn’t look at him, or speak to him until she slipped into his old robe, choosing it over her own. He watched her every move until at last she leaned against the wall opposite the toilet, hands behind her back as she studied him.

“Why don’t you tell me what’s going on?” she asked.

“I’ve been seeing things. Not flash back things, but shadows. Remember a few nights ago when I thought someone was in the apartment?”

“Of course. You shoved me in the bathroom at three in the morning and nearly gave me a heart attack.”

“I didn’t want to tell you because I didn’t want you to be afraid to stay here alone, but I saw a shadow in the window when I pulled up that night. I thought it was you, but when I came in you were asleep. I know I saw that shadow and it looked like a person.”

Irene nodded slowly, took a deep breath, then went into the bedroom where Hawkeye followed. She sat in one of the chairs overlooking the street and he took the other one. For some time she stared out at the rain in the darkness and a different fear crept up on him. Was this her last straw? She picked at a loose string on the sleeve of his robe and he thought about that time he saved her from those lowlifes who had her trapped in the shower.

The memory disappeared when she spoke.

“Did something happen tonight to make you sleep in the living room?”

“Yeah. I saw a face peeking out around the corner of the hallway. Then I heard footsteps and I saw our bedroom door slam shut.”

“I see.” She looked back to the storm and his stomach knotted. Then she stood and sat in his lap, curling up into him with her face to his neck. “I believe you.”

  
  
  


###  **Part V**

  
  
  


Two weeks passed with no incidents. It was as if whatever had been tormenting him knew that if it was quiet, Irene would really begin to question his sanity. Frankly, he was questioning it too. Why would it stop now? Did it seek to drive them apart? To cause discourse between them?

It was making him doubt himself but he was too afraid to ask Irene if she was doubting him too. He lay awake, staring at the ceiling as headlights crossed from outside. The sun had barely set and he assumed the lights were Alice.

Being the first night they were all off work together in weeks, she’d decided to come over and much to Hawk’s annoyance, she knew about the “ghosts”. The argument that ensued he’d apologized for, realizing too late that his reaction was unfounded, despite feeling he was right to be upset. Irene thought the same and promised to ask him before talking about those sorts of things to friends. But his anger… he rubbed his face and tried to push away the thought of how quickly he’d yelled at her and wondered if that was him, or something else.

A few minutes passed and he could hear Irene greeting Alice with laughter but he wasn’t ready yet. He lay there with his eyes closed and listened until the laughter died abruptly and harsh whispering replaced it. What the hell was going on in there?

Hawk peeked through the door but all he could see was Irene’s back, her brown curls bobbing as she shook her head and argued with Alice. That’s weird, he thought before going out to join them. As soon as he got to the living room he realized what the commotion was about.

Alice had an Ouija board tucked under her arm. Irene was trying to push it away, block Hawkeye from seeing it, but it was too late.

“I’m not doing that,” Hawkeye said.

“I understand it can seem scary,” Alice said, taking a step closer to him. “But I have ways of keeping us safe and if you want this thing gone, we need to find out what it wants.”

“You actually believe it’s….” He trailed off.

“Yes. I mean, it’s either ghosts or you’re hallucinating.”

“I’m not hallucinating.” Or was he? The things that had been happening were strange, and frightening at times, but they were also so vague he’d begun to wonder if they’d happened at all. And yet, he couldn’t admit that. He couldn’t tell Irene there was a chance it wasn’t real and it was all in his head because then he’d have to tell her about what happened to him in Korea before he came home. He’d have to tell her about the bus and he wasn’t ready. She might… she might leave.

That thought nagged in the back of his mind and he knew it felt off. The concern had always been there but this felt more intense. As if someone or something was stoking that fear.

“Fine,” he threw his hands up.

“Hawkeye,” Irene whispered but he’d already plopped down on the couch.

“Do whatever and let’s get this over with. Whatever is here, I want it gone.”

Irene stood there at the corner of his vision as Alice set the board on the table and began pouring salt in a ring around it and placing white candles on the outside of the circle.The only light that was still on in the apartment was in their bedroom, the last light of day back lighting the curtains over the sliding door to the balcony.

He raised a brow at Alice as she bumbled around but he didn’t chance a glance at Irene. He didn’t need to. He could feel her concern and her gaze on him but all he did was lean forward onto his knees and watch as Alice set the board up.

After a few minutes Irene sat next to him, scoot in close to his side and a pang of guilt stabbed his guts. She was afraid. But he needed answers. Before it hurt her.

“I need one of you to do this with me,” Alice said, taking a pillow from the couch to sit on the floor opposite Hawkeye. Hawk raised a brow but Irene volunteered before he had a chance to speak. She slid onto the floor between his knees and he grabbed her shoulders protectively.

“It should be me,:” he said.

“No. If it;’s bothering you, you’re the one it wants,” she reasoned but he could feel her shaking. “I don’t want you involved if you don’t have to be.”

“Alright, now we need to say hello,” Alice said, moving the planchette toward the hello on the board. “We’re reaching out to whomever is here. Can you tell us your name?”

Hawk sat forward, on the edge of his seat while he waited for something to happen. They moved the planchette around slowly in a circular pattern, as they were supposed to do, but for a long time nothing happened.

Then it stopped. Irene tensed and Alice bit her lip.

“Can you tell us your name?” she asked and the planchette seemed to shiver under their touch. It crept, slowly, toward NO in the corner of the board. “Why not?”

It pulled toward the letters, stopped, then spelled out, funny. Alice glanced at Hawk and Irene and shrugged.

“You mean it’s funny for us to not know your name? Or is your name funny?”

The planchette moved a little more quickly this time, spelling out “fun if you don't know”.

“Ah, so you like playing tricks?” Alice asked.

YES

“Is that why you mess with Hawkeye? Because he’s a trickster too?”

YES

“Is that what drew you to him?”

YES

“Then, you’re just here to play pranks on him, right? You don’t mean him any harm, do you?”

The planchette stopped dead in the middle of the board for so long that Hawk started leaning over Irene’s shoulder, pressing down on her.

“Do you want to hurt him?” Alice asked after the pause became unbearable.

YES

Irene tore her hands away from the planchette. “I can’t do this.”

“I will,” Hawkeye said, sitting beside her. She reluctantly moved out of the way and he licked his lips, which had grown dry, heart racing in his ears. He put his fingertips on the planchette and he could feel it pulling. It spelled out HELLO and a shiver ran through him. The candle light fluttered and he took a deep breath.

“Why do you want to hurt him?” Alice asked, adjusting to sit closer.

HATE HIM

“But why?”

I WANT

It paused hovering, making small circles. It was messing with them.

“What do you want, dammit?” Hawk asked, unable to keep his voice down.

IRENE

His heart dropped into his stomach and he felt he might throw up. That face, that awful pale face he’d seen peeking out at him, the shadow in the window beside their bed… that… that thing wanted Irene and it needed Hawkeye out of the way.

Irene clutched his arm hard, snapping him out of it to look at her. She stared up at him over his shoulder. Why did it want Irene and to what lengths would it go to get what it desired? He knew he didn’t like this place.

“We should quit,” Hawkeye said.

“We have to get it to say goodbye,” Alice explained. “We’re done talking. Goodbye.”

NO

“We’ve said what we wanted, now it’s time to go. You need to leave.”

NO

Every cabinet in the kitchen slammed open and a gust of wind blew out the candles, plunging them into darkness. The sound of heavy footsteps raced down the hall and the bedroom light shut off. Hawkeye wrapped himself around Irene to protect her. Alice screamed and leapt back away from the table, knocking over a candle and breaking the salt line. White wax spilled over the corner of the board.

Alice scrambled over beside Hawkeye who tucked her under his arm. Who were they kidding? Preventative measures for something that was already inside? Then it dawned on him… Irene hadn’t actually experienced it before. More than that, he knew he wasn’t crazy. Not if they were seeing it too.

“I don’t want to do this anymore,” Irene said, shaking her head against his chest.

“We have to get it to say goodbye,” Alice insisted.

“It’s already been in. Communicating through the board is just a game to it,” Hawk said, peeling himself away from the women. He grabbed the board and the planchette and threw it in the trash. He bagged it up and took it down to the cans at the curb, making sure the lid was on tight before practically sprinting back up to the apartment where Irene and Alice had turned the lights on and were closing the cabinets.

If not for their silence it would have seemed like any other night. He stared down the dark hallway through the open door of the bedroom and it was as if something looked back at him from the darkness. A light from a passing car slid slowly across the room and there was nothing, but he could feel it. Watching.

Hawkeye helped them clean up the candle wax and salt, none of them saying a word. After, they stood at the end of the hall and watched the bedroom door.

“I’m um… I’m not going to lie,” Alice said. “I’m afraid to be here, but I’m more afraid of going home alone.”

“You can stay with us tonight,” Irene said and hooked her arm with Alice’s. Hawkeye guided them toward the couch and a few minutes later he’d dragged the queen size mattress from the spare bedroom into the living room. The three of them huddled onto the bed, too afraid to turn the lights off.

Hawk pulled Irene close to his side, his gaze never leaving the entrance to the hall. She clung to him, arms tight around him. Time ticked by and Irene was the first to fall asleep. Her grip on him hardly loosened at all, but nothing had happened since before. His eyes were burning and getting heavy and Alice was half asleep beside him.

“I’m sorry,” she said, gazing at him with red rimmed eyes. “I didn’t know.”

“It’s not your fault. That thing was already here. Get some sleep.”

“What about you?”

“We’re all exhausted. And we’ve slept in more dangerous places.” He tried to force a smile but it faltered. The bombs of Korea were deadly, that much was true, but they were also a bit predictable. When they were happening, you knew it and you knew what to expect from them. Something about not knowing what this entity was capable of was far worse.

A few minutes ticked by and Alice was asleep and Hawkeye was the only one awake. He felt so alone. So responsible for them, but he couldn’t stay awake forever. Soon he’d have to give in. When he was almost asleep, unable to fight his drooping eyelids any more, a picture on top of the television moved. Ever so slightly. One of himself and Irene. Her bright, smiling face stared back at him, but his own had been scribbled out until it was nothing more than a black blob over the surface of the glass.

This was it. The declaration of war.

  
  
  


###  **Part VI**

  
  


Alice tried to go home for awhile the next day but by the time the sun began to set, she’d called to ask if she could spend the night again. Hawkeye had long hidden the picture from the television set. He’d tried to scrub the black off only to realize the picture beneath was scratched out, the picture torn where his face should have been. He’d tossed it in the bottom of the spare room closet before Irene noticed.

That afternoon Hawkeye and Irene lay on the couch in the living room while they waited for Alice. Irene had become clingy; sticking to him like glue every chance she got. Not that doing so had been difficult. They’d spent a good part of the day sleeping to make up for not being able to rest well the night before.

The only thing they made sure to do was watch for the garbage truck that next morning after Alice had gone home. They watched as the bin was emptied. The board was gone but that was only part of the problem. Whatever it was, still lurked in the apartment.

Night fell and they turned on every light in the apartment though they were still too jumpy to go into the master bedroom. The three of them lay on the mattress on the living room floor watching television until at last they fell asleep.

Hawkeye woke to a strange scraping sound. All the lights were off but the TV static lit the living room. The sound stopped as soon as he opened his eyes and for a moment he wasn’t sure he’d actually heard anything at all. He looked toward the hall but realized he could only move his head a few inches. The rest of his body was completely immobile and it felt as if something heavy were laying on top of him, weighing him down.

Something moved on his right and he turned his head slightly to see Irene sleeping beside him. A lock of hair moved back from her cheek and she moved her face to the side, following the movement and muttering his name questioningly, in her sleep.

“I’m here,” his voice said out of thin air on the other side of her and his blood ran cold in his veins. He opened his mouth to speak but the words caught in his throat. “You are mine.” The voice was still his but this time it had a twinge of malice behind it.

Hawk struggled against the force that bound him as the blanket that covered her slowly inched over her shoulder, then down to the curve of her waist. He could see the fabric of her nighty shift as if someone was dragging a finger up her rib cage to her shoulder before pulling the neckline of the satin nightgown away.

His heart pounded against his ribs and sweat dotted his brow but every ounce of strength he had was nothing compared to what held him and he was utterly helpless to stop what was happening.

Irene swatted at the invisible hand that touched her, mumbling for Hawkeye to stop and he choked on a sob. In his head he screamed for it to stop and in response he could hear his voice chuckling from somewhere overhead. He could feel the bed depress on either side of him, as if someone was standing, straddling him.

Then the singing started. It was his own voice, soft, barely above a whisper.

“Took a walk and passed your house late last night. All the shades were pulled and drawn way down tight.”

Then his shirt was yanked open, the buttons popping off one by one and he wondered if he might be gutted right there in bed.

“From within, the dim light cast two silhouettes on the shade. Oh, what a lovely couple they made.”

He felt an icy cold sensation on his chest, then an intense burning as invisible nails or claws dragged across his flesh. Blood pooled from the deep scratches as the voice continued to sing.

“Put his arms around your waist, held you tight. Kisses I could almost taste in the night. Wondered why I'm not the guy whose silhouette's on the shade. I couldn't hide the tears in my eyes.”

Pain throbbed through his body as the scratches grew long, extending to his belly as the voice got closer, a growl in his ear.

“Lost control and rang your bell, I was sore. Let me in or else I'll beat down your door.”

Hawk closed his eyes tight and tried to scream until at last he was. Yelling into the pale white light of static as Irene and Alice jumped out of bed and away from them.

A loud banging on the wall of the kitchen made them all jump and the neighbor yelled at them to quiet down. Irene and Alice huddled close to the TV and Hawkeye sat up, gasping for breath, his hair hanging in sweaty clumps.

“Hawkeye?” Irene said.

“I’m okay. I’m…” he exhaled shakily. “Come here.” He motioned to her and she came to him without hesitation. He held her close and rocked back and forth.

“What happened?” she leaned back, then noticed his open shirt, blood trickled down his chest and belly. She gasped and pulled back the fabric. He winced and saw the angry gouges from collarbone to belly button.

“Oh my god,” Alice gasped.

“We have to call Mulcahy,” Irene said. “This has gone too far.”

They turned the light on again and Irene got the first aid kit from the kitchen. Alice sat in silence, chewing her nails as Irene patched Hawkeye up. He watched her closely as she did. Every move. The way she pushed her hair away from her face or how the shadows of her eyelashes rested on his cheeks or the way she bit her lip when she was concentrating.

Whatever it was wanted her. He couldn’t let that happen.

  
  
  


###  **Part VII**

Mulcahy couldn’t come. A conference had him held up several hours away and they needed help immediately. He set up for another priest to come, a friend of his that had more experience in blessing homes and doing exorcisms. Hawkeye hated that word. It sounded so hokey, but the scratches across his chest…well that made the word hold more meaning.

He hadn’t had the stomach to tell Irene what happened while she was sleeping. It already kept him up at night, no point in making her worse than she already was. Alice refused to go home. Hawk didn’t mind. She was a distraction, in a way.

The priest left by early afternoon and they were finally able to pile up in the master bedroom and sleep for a few hours. The sound of children playing in front of the old mansion woke them and they stretched and decided to make lunch and maybe go for a walk.

Hawkeye led the way into the living room, promising to make grilled cheese when he stopped in the middle of the hall, a few steps from the living room. Irene and Alice walked into him but he didn’t hear what they were saying.

On the living room table was the Ouija board.

“That can’t be,” Irene said.

“If this is a joke, it’s not a good one.” Alice jabbed Hawkeye’s ribs but he didn’t miss the waver in her voice.

“I threw it out. We watched them take the garbage out,” Hawk said.

Irene moved around him and looked down at the board. “It’s the one we used. It still has the white wax in the corner.”

Hawk felt the sting of bile in his throat. He grabbed the board and took it outside, Alice and Irene in tow. They went around to the back of the mansion, where the grounds keeper was burning off a pile of dead brush that had been cut away from the base of the oak trees that lined the border of the back yard. The man barely gave them a second glance as Hawkeye tossed the board into the fire.

The flames leapt higher, burning green and blue and a scream filled the air. The grounds keeper nearly jumped out of his skin as the scream grew louder. It was like a thousand voices in agony as the board burned to ash. People hung out their windows and children crowded around the corner of the house to watch. Hawkeye pulled Irene and Alice away from the flames and refused to leave until the board was ash and the flames had gone back to normal.

On their way back to the house the other residents stared at them but said nothing. They locked themselves in the apartment, no longer willing to eat.

“I don’t understand,” Irene said. “The priest was just here. He blessed everything.”

“Maybe he missed something,” Alice offered.

Hawkeye hid his face in his hands for a long time until he finally stood up. “I’m going out. We’re going out.”

“To where?”

“Anywhere but here.”

They spent the day doing whatever they could to occupy themselves. They went bowling, then out to eat, then to the movies. Midnight was approaching when they made their way back to the apartment. The entire house was dark except one light in Hawk and Irene’s bedroom. Hawkeye expected to see a shadow move across the window at any moment, but nothing happened. Maybe the Ouija board was one last trick and it was over with now.

He took Irene’s hand and led her upstairs, Alice trailing.

The apartment felt normal. Empty. He didn’t feel eyes watching him from the shadows and the hairs on the back of his neck didn’t prickle like they had before. Maybe it was gone.

They showered and changed into pajamas, brushed their teeth and settled down for the night. Again, Irene was the first one asleep, tucked in close to Hawkeye’s side. He stared at the ceiling for a long time, thinking about all that had happened. He stroked Irene’s shoulder and was fading into sleep himself when the phone rang in the living room.

Alice sat up a little, propped on an elbow, staring down the dark hallway. Irene slept through it.

“Don’t go,” Alice whispered, looking him in the eye now. Even in the dim light of the street lamp outside he could see the terror on her face.

“What if it’s dad?”

“Hawkeye…”

He got up and eased down the hallway, every ring seeming to grow louder as he neared and at last his hand hovered over the receiver. His hand shook as he lifted it from the cradle.

“Hello?”

Silence.

“Dad?”

Silence. His stomach felt sick.

“Took a walk and passed your house late last night. All the shades were pulled and drawn way down tight,” his own voice said from the other side. He slammed the receiver down. Had the priest blessed the phone? He didn’t think so.

Hawk took a step back and the phone rang again. He picked it up, then hung up without listening to what the thing was saying.

It rang again. Now Irene and Alice were awake. He could see them sitting close to one another on the bed, watching him down the hall. This time he picked it up and the voice hadn’t stopped singing.

“Put his arms around your waist, held you tight. Kisses I could almost taste in the night.”

“What the hell do you want?” he demanded.

Silence.

“Tell me dammit!”

“Irene.”

“Why?”

“Wondered why I'm not the guy whose silhouette's on the shade. I couldn't hide the tears in my eyes.”

Hawkeye hung up, ripped the cable from the phone and all went silent. He stared at it, breath trembling as hard as his hand. Seconds passed but it felt like hours until at last he calmed his breathing and started back toward the bedroom.

When the phone rang again.

A chill raced down his spine. He cleared the space in a couple of steps, grabbed the phone, and went to the balcony where he threw the phone into the bushes below. The fall made the phone break into pieces and the ringing stopped. He locked the door and went back to the bedroom where Irene had her head in Alice’s lap, crying. They were terrified. Shaking.

He barely set foot through the door when it slammed behind him. He spun around and backed away. His hand went to the painful scratches across his chest and there was a slight knocking on the outside of the door.

“No,” he said, taking another step away from the door.

The knocking turned to banging and Hawkeye lunged for the door, locking it right before the knob started to jiggle. He nearly fell back against the footboard and the door shook violently for several minutes before all of a sudden it stopped, leaving only the sounds of his heart in his ears and Alice and Irene’s sobbing behind him.

Quietly, oh so quietly, his voice came from the other side of the door. Singing as before and tapping out a beat on the wood.

“Lost control and rang your bell, I was sore. Let me in or else I'll beat down your door.”

“It sounds like you,” Alice said. “Why the hell does it sound like you?”

Hawkeye looked back at Irene. It didn’t want him out of the way. It wanted to be him.

The knocking stopped. The singing stopped. He strained his ears to hear something, anything, from beyond the door. There was a little laugh from far off, somewhere else in the apartment, then silence. He pushed a chair in front of the door and got back in bed with Irene and Alice, now with both of them clinging to him.

  
  
  


###  Part VIII

  
  


Hawkeye woke with a start a few hours later to the sound of something creaking. Dim light from the street lamp coming in through a slit in the curtains. He looked around, bleary eyed. The bedroom door was still closed, the chair in place, and Irene and Alice were fast asleep beside him. The apartment was silent. Still. He must have imagined the sound.

He sat up in bed and stayed quiet, listening for a time but hearing only the women’s breathing. Once his heart stopped pounding he chalked the creaking up to a half dreaming mind and the terror they’d endured and went to the master bathroom.

When he was finished, he shuffled across the hardwood to the bed when he froze in his tracks, his head slowly turning toward the open bedroom door, the chair slid out of the way. He could see into the hallway but not all the way down it for the darkness. The silence was almost deafening as he stared into the pitch black hall toward the living room when he swore he saw something move.

“Irene,” he said quietly, not taking his eyes off the hallway. “Irene.”

She stirred and groaned, muttering something incoherent.

“Wake up,” he said, his voice on edge.

“What is it? What time is it?” she mumbled, rolling over to put her back to him.

“I don’t know but you need to get up.”

He caught movement at the end of the bed and his gaze shot to the place where the blanket twitched below Irene’s feet. Then it slid slowly to the floor, pulling off her. She clutched at it, annoyed.

“Hawk, what are you—” she sat up in time to see the blanket slide off the end of the bed, but Hawkeye was nowhere near it. She scrambled until her back was the headboard, fully awake with panic. “What’s going on?”

That woke Alice who was on alert in an instant. She scrambled back to the headboard with Irene.

“Shh,” he said.

There was a faint sound of footsteps on the old wooden floor of the apartment, a creak near the bedroom door. Whatever it was sounded like it had stopped right outside the door. The following silence made Hawk aware of how hard his heart was beating and his breathing was… wait… he held his breath and the raspy sounds continued.

“Hawk,” Irene said, tears in his voice.

Pounding footsteps raced toward the bed and Irene screamed. She was yanked from the bed by her ankle and was pulled toward the door and the absolute darkness of the hallway before Hawkeye could process what was happening.

“Hawkeye!” she cried out, her nails breaking on the hardwood floor as she clawed and fought against the thing that was now laughing loudly in Hawkeye’s voice.

He flung himself at her, grabbing her around her chest and pulling like some sick tug of war. He put all of his weight back and now he could see it, staring at him from the shadows, eyes black against snow white skin that was too smooth despite the too wide grin plastered on its face. Sharp yellow teeth were too large for its face and it snapped them as it laughed at him.

Hawk braced his feet on either side of the door and Alice launched herself over his legs, swinging a lamp at the things face only to go right through it. The being vanished but the laughing continued, growing darker, deeper, grittier. Hawkeye snatched Irene up and ran into the bathroom, hot on Alice’s heels. She slammed the door just as the entity collided with the other side. She turned the old lock on the door and the three of them scrambled to the tub as the door shook violently.

Irene curled up between Hawkeye’s knees and hid her face in his chest, covering her ears with her hands which were bloody from clawing at the floor. He held on to her as tight as he could, eyes glued to the door in horror until at last the door stopped moving. Everything stopped as quickly as it’d started but they were too afraid to move. They spent the rest of the night curled up in the tub, jumping at every little noise beyond the door.

That was it. The final straw.

“We’re moving. As soon as it’s daylight,” Hawkeye said. “I won’t let this happen again.”

  
  


The next morning they called the priest and he returned with help. They moved through the apartment, blessing every square inch, but Hawkeye wasn’t satisfied. That very day they packed their belongings, having the priests bless everything before they removed it and by the time the sun was setting again, they loaded the last boxes into the car.

Hawkeye took one last look at the apartment windows, devoid of light and yet he still saw it… a shadow darker than the darkness, waving at him from the bedroom window.

It was over for them. But it wasn’t over for good.

God help whoever came next.


End file.
